Returning to Perdition
by scatteredminds
Summary: The New Ozai Society have waited and now have struck. They're now able to get the old regime back believing that Fire Lord Zuko is now dead but they are far from being right. Zuko is now having to return back to the ways when he lived in exile with the company of a young woman who he unexpectedly needs, he's now travelling back to the Capital to try and get back what is his.
1. Chapter 1

**New Ozai Society**

Mai's father was staring at the door-sized portrait of Ozai that was hanging on the wall when he heard footsteps approach him. _Zuko must die_, Mai's father thought as the footsteps slowed to a stop behind him. _He is not the leader-the true leader._

"Sir," a young man called out. Mai's father raised his right hand and started stroking his facial hair. This had to be done. This plan must work. "Sir?" the young man repeated. Mai's father raised his hand up to stop the young man behind him.

Not yet.

He wasn't ready.

He wasn't ready for the go ahead.

This plan should work-it must work, Mai's father would constantly say to himself after he planned the idea out. He immediately went to work with it after Mai had that scuffle-that annoying scuffle-and took Tom-Tom with her. Mai deserved better than to be broken-hearted by Zuko. The Fire Nation deserved better than to be governed by Zuko. Zuko was a traitor. Zuko was to blame.

"Zuko!" Mai's father yelled. "We will end that boy. Do it. Go after him and _destroy him_."

"Of course, sir," the young man said. After a moment, Mai's father heard the footsteps of the young man grow fainter as he made his way to the door until he could no longer hear them. He turned around and looked at the table in front of him.

The table in front of him was a 3D replica of what the world looked like. Blue for the sea, green for land, yellow for deserts, grey for mountains and white for the snow and poles. In the sea, there were red ships that were heading to the east and black ships that were placed head on in front of the red ships. The hand that was stroking Mai's father's facial hair was dropped. He picked up a red ship that was in front of the others and looked at it intently.

He tilted the ship side to side as a grin took over. "You'll be sorry for that day. The day that you betrayed your father and your nation." Mai's father began to laugh maniacally as he threw the ship onto the map, causing the red ships to topple over. "Oh, you will be sorry."

* * *

**Fire Nation Docks**

Zuko stood several meters away from the commotion at the docks, looking on at the scene. He had stopped counting the number of times he had left the Fire Nation Capital to go and do the duties he had to do. _At least things are changing now_, Zuko thought to himself; a thought that he would tell himself constantly to keep him grounded, to remind himself that he wasn't like his father or hoped that he wasn't.

Everything was getting better, he knew it was-even with the occasional backlash such as the time with Yu Dao but that was a step in the right direction. After Yu Dao, it made him realize that separating nations would be incredibly difficult, which even the Avatar agreed to. Zuko would come up with the thought, occasionally, that part of the reason why the Avatar agreed was because of his relationship with the water bender, Katara. _Actually, it probably is part of the reason_, Zuko humoured himself. However, his thoughts were clouded by his ex-girlfriend Mai who had broken up with him just over a year ago.

What he did, even with hindsight, he knew was stupid. He should have told her. He should have trusted her but the thought of her knowing that he was discussing matters with his father, scared him.

After that break-up, he hadn't seen her during the following period. After he met his mother, he went back to the Fire Nation Capital and sought out Mai. However, when he went to her house, he was told that she was no longer in the Capital-let alone anywhere near the capital. She was in some town in the Fire Nation but he had never gone after her. He knew she didn't want to see him. He knew that she probably hated him.

'_I don't hate you'_ he remembered Mai telling him. _You didn't then but you might do now_.

"Hey, Zuko!" a familiar voice called out, snapping Zuko out of his thoughts. Zuko turned around and smiled at the Avatar Group walking towards him. Aang, the Avatar, had grown so much since he had first laid eyes on him. He was now towering over Toph and was now at least half a foot taller than Katara who he was holding hands with. Aang was still bald, had his arrow tattoos and wore his usual orange and yellow robes. Katara had her hair down, like she usually did these days, and wore her blue anorak that stopped just below the knee that had slits down the sides and wore black leggings. Sokka was wearing something very similar to Katara, except his was a bit shorter and was munching on a kebab of some sort. Toph, on the other hand, was still as short as ever and had a wild hairstyle going on. She wore similar clothes to Katara and Sokka, except hers were in yellow and green and had a green headband on.

"Hello Aang," Zuko nodded. "I see you're bringing everyone." He watched as Aang let go of Katara's hand, making his heart break ever so slightly.

"Yeah," Aang laughed. "I think they all need to see what we're planning."

"I think it's a great idea," Katara beamed.

"You think every idea Aang has is a great idea," Toph sighed, rolling her eyes.

"Look, it's not _only_ Aang's idea-" Katara was cut off by Sokka who started choking on his skewer of meat.

"It might as well be," Sokka said with a mouthful, which made Zuko cringe slightly. Aang laughed uncomfortably.

"It's also Zuko's as well. We want to make this community where everyone can live-whether you are a Fire Bender, Earth Bender, Water Bender and even a non-bender."

"So is that why you're going off to the East?" Toph asked Zuko. Zuko was about to nod but then remembered that Toph was blind.

"Yes, it is. I need to look at the situation that the colonies in the East are in while Aang and you lot will go up north," Zuko responded. "From there, we're going to have a discussion on where this new community will be, how big it will be, how it will be and who will run it. Obviously, after we've come back with our findings."

"And _why_ are we going up north, instead of going with you?" Katara questioned. Zuko raised an eyebrow. He needed to do this on his own, he needed to talk to these people and see for himself. He wanted to see how much the Fire Nation had disrupted these people's lives; he wanted to know whether or not he can do anything to help, to change or even keep the same. This was more for him than for any of the others.

"I need to do this," Zuko said plainly.

"I don't think you should go on your own," Katara sighed, crossing her arms. "Sweetie, don't you agree?"

"Ugh, look, Katara, he's a big boy now. And, if you hadn't noticed, he's _the Fire Lord now_," Sokka answered Katara instead of Aang. "If anything, he'll be needing to be kept away from the wom-"

Zuko forced a cough, making Sokka stop immediately.

"If anything, he'd probably be too deep-" Toph began until Katara squealed.

"_Toph_! _Sokka_! Stop! That is disgusting!" Katara snapped. Zuko, Toph and Sokka chuckled.

"Sir!" Zuko heard someone call. He turned around to find one of the navy soldiers standing there. The soldier was wearing red and black armour, heavy dark red boots and helmet that didn't cover his face like some of the others did. _He's so young_, Zuko thought as he studied the soldier in front of him, _he must be younger than me. He must be the same age that I was when I was exiled._ Zuko nodded to allow the young soldier to continue talking. "Sir, everything is ready and we are all good to go when you are."

"Thank you, I'll be there in five minutes." With that the young solider nodded with a smile, turned around and walked away. Zuko scrunched his nose, unsure if the young soldier was in training or properly part of the army. _Maybe there should be a law as to how young you can join the army_, he thought as he watched the young man walk towards the ship and be greeted by several other soldiers. _Maybe_.

The group walked towards the largest ship where two soldiers were waiting at the bottom to escort Zuko and close up the ship to prevent anyone else from entering. Zuko nodded at the two soldiers but then turned around to look at the Avatar Group behind him who were smiling at him. "I'll see you all back here in three weeks with a report on what our status is up north," Zuko told them.

"Everything has to be all business with you," Toph groaned. "Lighten up, we aren't fighting Ozai so we'll take things nice and easy."

"Uh…Toph…there's a lot more going on now that the war is over," Katara reminded Toph.

"The war's been over for over two years now!" Toph cried out.

"Remember what happened at Yu Dao?" Katara sighed. Toph opened her mouth then shut it and looked away, annoyed.

"Whatever," Toph muttered. Zuko chuckled and turned to Aang.

"Good luck, Aang." Zuko held out his hand to Aang who took it with a grin.

"Same to you, Zuko."

"Zuzu," Sokka snickered before he earned a slap from Katara.

* * *

**Two Days Later**

Zuko stood on the main deck next to the young soldier, listening to how the young soldier, who was called Jin, as they watched the night sky go by.

"My father was in some quadrant of the Fire Nation Army a few years ago, when Ozai was still in charge, and they were on the hunt for the Avatar. He wasn't with you, I think, because he was talking about going with some General whose name I forget. I mean when you're 14 or 15, you don't care all that much for the men or women that your parents work with-well I don't know about you but everyday people who have to make a living to live but I'm fucking this up all together with how I'm explaining this," Jin explained. Zuko smiled at the night sky. This was a change from all the other soldiers. He was talking to him like an actual person and not Fire Lord Zuko. It was actually a nice change. "And so, while he went away, we didn't hear anything from him for about two weeks-by 'we' I mean my mum, my two sisters, my uncle, my grandma and me. One day, we got this letter from the army going, you know, 'I'm sorry to tell you that your husband died' etcetera-"

"Why do you say it like that?" Zuko asked, somehow annoyed at how nonchalant Jin was about his father's death.

"Hmm? You mean the story and the letter? I accepted that he died a long time ago. That's what you do. You move on. You don't forget but you move on, remember but never forget."

Zuko nodded. He understood that.

"Anyway, we didn't get any compensation because, you know, you guys are total dicks-I mean then not now because you're absolutely cool; like really chill." Zuko raised an eyebrow and looked at Jin briefly who had face-palmed himself. He chuckled and looked back up at the night sky. Jin continued with his story, "we were really poor and we all had to work and then we figured that it was better for me to enter the army because we earned more money and ta-da, here I am."

"How are you finding the army so far?" Zuko asked him. _It's beautiful tonight_, Zuko thought. The night sky was filled with stars that twinkled brightly. It was so much more different than in Capital. The lights in the Capital dimmed the beauty that the stars radiated.

"A lot better than I expected," Jin responded. Zuko nodded again, still watching the night sky until frantic running that was heading towards him and Jin interrupted his thoughts. He looked away from the night sky to find Jin doing the same thing. A man was running towards them and stopped right in front of them, breathless.

"What's wrong?" Zuko asked the breathless man.

"Sir…several ships…a fleet…are heading towards us."

"Tell them to stop so we can investigate them," Zuko told him. "Take Soldier Jin with you, he needs training in that area."

Zuko stood on the still ship and looked at the fleet that had stopped dead in their tracks. They looked like the old Fire Nation ships until he had ordered a new design for the ships as well as to destroy the old ships. He wanted to start anew and it happened-it was happening. However, this old fleet was odd to Zuko. Something felt off but he couldn't quite put a finger on it.

During the time both fleets had stood to a stand still, there was no response from the old Fire Nation fleet and it was making Zuko worried. There was something wrong with this. Something was definitely wrong.

His worries came true.

A fireball out of nowhere was flung at them and hit the quarterdeck. "Everyone get to your stations now! We are under attack!" Zuko yelled. He watched as the soldiers scrambled to the catapults and other weapons on board and started attacking the other ship.

_What the hell is going on?_ Zuko thought as he ran across the ship to the very end so that he had an eye on the main ship. He threw his arm back, getting ready to throw a lightening strike however threw his arms across to create a shield against an incoming fireball. "What the _hell_?" Zuko yelled as he dropped the shield and was met by fireball to the face. He flew across the ship and hit a pole. He looked up to find a familiar middle-aged male soldier however he could not put a name him.

"Long live Fire Lord Ozai!" the male soldier yelled. Zuko's eyes widened.

"What?" he yelled before rolling to his left to avoid a spray of fire from the soldier. Several more sprays followed the first with Zuko having to roll around to avoid them until the last one. With the last one, Zuko pulled his arms back and pushed the spray away from him. The fire was redirected back to the soldier and engulfed him. "Asshole," Zuko muttered until he saw what had happened to his fleet.

They were all under fire. All of his ships were under fire and being attacked by these Fire Nation soldiers. _Were they really Fire Nation soldiers?_ Zuko questioned as he looked around until he found a man that looked oddly like Mai's father. He squinted, trying to figure out if it was Mai's father however, he saw Jin running towards the man.

"Jin, god damn it, _don't go near him_! _Stop_!" Zuko yelled, jumping to his feet and started to sprint towards Jin and the man. He wanted to stop Jin from harming him until he realised what was going to happen. "_Jin! Stop!_" Zuko continuously yelled. As he drew closer, he saw that Jin had started to throw fireballs at the man who was increasingly beginning to look like Mai's father. The man just waved his hand to the side, throwing the fireballs to the side with a smile. It felt like the distance between him and the man was incredibly long and felt like it was taking forever until he saw the man cross his arms. _Shit, don't!_ Zuko thought frantically until he heard a whooshing sound. He looked to his left and found two spiked balls on fire flying towards him. He dodged them only to hear Jin yell and looking at him to find him falling off of the ship. "Jin!"

Zuko's anger was at an all time high as he stood in front of the man, until it all dissipated to shock and horror.

Mai's father.

"Sir…what are you doing?" Zuko questioned, taking a step back.

"Taking back what Ozai deserves," Mai's father laughed and threw several fireballs at Zuko that he evaded with quick steps and turns. However, he was knocked off his feet by an attack from behind. He fell on his face and looked up slightly to find his army losing. His fleet was on fire, his men were being thrown off just like Jin and he was on his face.

Mai's father gripped Zuko's face and forced him to look at him. Mai's father leant in and whispered so that only Zuko and him knew what he said. "All hail Ozai," he whispered with malice.

"You will fail whatever you're doing," Zuko spat. Mai's father laughed.

"I believe _you_ are the one that failed." Zuko's eyes widened and the next thing he knew he was in the air and falling into the ocean.

And then darkness.

* * *

Zuko stirred to find a girl with big brown eyes, eyebags and her hair encircling her face so that her features were indistinguishable, hovering over him. Her eyebrows pulled together.

"Hi."


	2. Chapter 2

Zuko yelled at the sight of the girl who yelled back. He pushed her away as he sat up and watched her topple over backwards onto the balls of her hands. He had no idea who she was, what she wanted but all he knew was that someone-in this case Mai's father-wanted him dead and that they had failed. He took quick deep breaths as he watched the girl mutter under her breath as she sat on her knees with her legs tucked under her.

His mind was racing as he looked around at his surroundings. Why did Mai's father want to kill him? Why did they attack when they did? What was their motive? Most importantly, where was he? He looked at the ground and found that he was no longer wearing the heavy armour but was wearing the underclothing. His pants were muddy due to the ground being damp which meant that the sea or a river was by him. He turned his head to find a river that had a width of approximately twenty-five Fire Nation navy ships.

"Ugh, where am I?" Zuko thought aloud as he ran his fingers through his hair before stopping. Where was his crown?

"You're in Earth Nation," the girl called out. He turned and glared at her before he jumped to his feet. Feeling around on his body, he started to panic when he remembered his armour was taken off of him. Which also meant his weapons.

"Who are you? What do you want? Who sent you here to kill me?" Zuko yelled at her. The girl sighed as she ran her fingers up into her long, dark brown hair, pulling the hair back. "Answer me!" he yelled but didn't get a response from the girl. She continued to pull her hair back before tying her hair up with a green ribbon that was wrapped around her wrist. Once her hair was tied up, she looked up at Zuko angrily.

"If I wanted to kill you, I would already have done so, Scarface," the girl snapped. _Scarface_? He thought as he touched the scar on the left side of his face. "You were floating down the damn river and I went out and swam to get you. You were damn heavy with all your armour on so I took it off," spitting out each word as she tilted her head to the left. He followed her tilt to find his two swords, his crown and armour on a pile. "You were unconscious for three days so I sat here and waited for you to wake up. _You're welcome_."

He had been gone for _three _days? _That must mean they think I'm dead_, Zuko thought as his eyes steadied on the crown that was sitting on top of the armour. If they thought he was dead then that means that they want the crown, Zuko's thoughts raced. Alive or dead, these men wanted the crown to take over. Or did they now? Seeing as how he was 'dead' in their thoughts, they don't need the crown to take over. The Avatar is somewhere up north by now with the rest of the gang. His father was in prison-_his father was in prison_. They're going to release him and get him to be king again. _That was what Mai's father meant._

But his father was pretty much dead with his powers, they were taken away from him. What were these men going to do once they realised that he had nothing to give to them besides his body?

Focusing on the swords and armour, he wondered whether or not he could trust this girl until he heard a loud sloshing. He turned his attention back to the girl who had gotten up and started walking away. "Wait!" Zuko yelled. The girl halted and turned around with her hands on his hips. He took in the sight of the girl. She must be around his age, Zuko thought to himself, as his eyes went up her body. She wore a blue dress that reached her knees and wore some sort of netting underneath it. The arms of the blue dress were long, ending where her fingers began. The dress had intricate embroidery which Zuko had seen before on some of his travels a few years ago, however could not place where. Her face was somewhat clear, with a dying pimple that was on the side of her nose. Her nose was pointed while her lips were slightly larger than what he had seen before as many lips in the Fire Nation were small and thin. Her eyes were dark brown with short eyelashes and her eyebrows seemed as though someone else did them as they had a specific curvature that many women were now finding fashionable in the world. She was much shorter than him; about a foot and a half shorter.

"Yeah, what do you want?" she asked, raising an eyebrow. Zuko shook his head. Did she not know who she was talking to?

"Do you know who I am?" Zuko asked her. This time both of her eyebrows rose as she looked him over.

"No…? Should I? Have we dated before?" the girl questioned uncertainly. 'Dated'? Zuko wanted to laugh but he wasn't going to risk having this girl run away as she wasn't going to murder him. Yet.

"No. I am Fire Lord Zuko-" Zuko was cut off by the girl bursting out in laughter. She doubled over and wrapped her arms around her stomach, her ponytail getting tangled. After a minute, the girl calmed down and was only shaking with laughter. Zuko's patience was running on thin ice and this girl was _laughing_ at him? Laughing at the fact that he was a Fire Lord? Did she not know what he could do?

"Oh God, _Fire Lord Zuko_?" the girl giggled as she straightened up and pulled her hair to make the ribbon go back in its original position. She looked at him, her eyes red with tears from laughter. "What would you like me to do, _Fire Lord Zuko_?"

Was she mocking him?

"I need you to take me back to your town," Zuko ordered her. Wiping her face with her index finger, she nodded.

"This way, _your majesty_."

Zuko followed the young woman while carrying his weapons, armour and crown in his arms. Before they had left, Zuko politely asked her to help him carry his items but all she did was purse her lips, curve the ends of them, turned around and started walking. The nerve of some people, Zuko thought as he trudged behind her, was infuriating. It was obvious she had no idea who he was or else she would have helped him. _Or maybe not, seeing as how all she did was rescue me out of the water_. He stopped walking for a minute before he sighed and realised that she did _actually _help him by getting him out the water. However, his first impression of her wasn't terribly great and he knew his first impression on her wasn't as good. He didn't know what went wrong. _Or maybe it was because she's insufferable_, Zuko thought and smiled. It was a nicer thought to walk with rather than think anything else.

The entirety of the walk was in silence, besides for the sloshing sound that came with each step. It made Zuko remember the times he was travelling with his uncle and even with the Avatar before they had beaten his father. He smiled at the memories that were flashing by, and then grimacing at some embarrassing ones.

"What the _hell_ are you doing?" he heard the young woman say, snapping himself out of his thoughts. He felt his cheeks burn as he looked at her to find that she had turned her head back.

"I…uh…um…" Zuko muttered out before she rolled her eyes. _Why does she keep on doing that?_ Zuko thought, getting enraged at her eye rolling. He was about to ask her until the young woman turned her back on him then took a sharp right between trees. He followed suit, nearly crashing into the left tree, but slowed down when he heard a familiar voice call out.

"_Everyone, gather around, this is an announcement from the Fire Nation!"_

_Shit_. "We need to hurry," Zuko told the girl. She sighed in response.

"What? Are they going to announce your death, Fire Lord Zuko?"

"Most probably."

"I've got to see this," she laughed as she pushed away some leaves to reveal the back of a black building. Zuko discovered that it was already dusk as the sky was now nearly all black and the stars had begun to shine. "Dump your shit there." The young woman pointed at the ground near a gutter as she peered past the edge of the building. Zuko grunted as he dropped the contents out of his arm and onto the ground by the gutter.

"What about proper clo-"

"We'll get that later, come on," the young woman told him before popping around the corner. Zuko sighed and ran after her, going around the corner and finding a pathway that ran straight to the middle to, what appeared to be, a large circular clearing. He found the young woman to be closing in to the point of interest; sighing, he ran after her. The oddly, black painted buildings went by him in a blur as he ran as fast as he could as he had lost the young woman who had already entered the clearing.

Within seconds, he found himself in the clearing. He was taken aback to find, what appeared to be, the whole village. All the women dressed like the young woman who had led him here in the first place, however were wearing several different coloured ribbons in their hair. From what he could see, there was green, black, red, purple, white and there probably were more. _Was this a hierarchy? _Zuko thought as he walked towards the crowd. He scanned the crowd to find the girl who he was walking with but couldn't find her. Huffing, he looked towards the middle only to drop his jaw. He couldn't believe it. Mai's uncle was here. _I hate my life right now_, he thought as he looked at him. He didn't even know his name, only that he was called the 'Warden' and that was pretty much it.

Looking around, he found a group of men who were wearing similar attire to the women except they had a shirt in the same pattern and wore black pants. Several men had ponytails that were tied up with their respected colour. Grunting, Zuko slid into the group of men. He expected them to say something but none of the men batted an eyelash. With relief, Zuko focused on Mai's uncle who had gotten much fatter since the last time he had seen him. His ponytail was cut off and wore his Warden uniform.

"I have come here to announce the possible death of our beloved Fire Lord Zuko," Mai's uncle boomed with a smile. The crowd whispered amongst itself as Mai's uncle's smile widened. "He fought…courageously…out at sea with a battle against _rebels_. However, there is faith that he is…alive…and so we are offering a reward of 10, 000 coins of your choice. We want his body alive…_or even dead_." The whispering grew ferociously before someone spoke up.

"Excuse me, who is going to lead the Fire Nation now?" a woman asked loudly. Mai's uncle grinned.

"Our previous Fire Lord has agreed to take the throne for now."

"Who would that be?" an elderly man asked.

"Why of course, Fire Lord Ozai."

* * *

The crowd dispersed with many of them riled up at the fact that Zuko's father was taking the throne.

And so was Zuko.

He stood in his place as the crowd disappeared when Mai's uncle left. He couldn't move his body except for his fists that were clenching and unclenching. This wasn't supposed to happen. It was supposed to go back to the way things were. _His father was incapacitated. _What were they going to do? Strike fear among the people? Did the people know he no longer had his fire bending skills?

Zuko heard a slight cough behind him. He turned around stiffly to find the young woman who had helped, which he used loosely, him earlier. She was holding a flier in her hand and her lips were pursed. "So…you're really Fire Lord Zuko?" she asked quietly. Zuko nodded stiffly. She was going to give him up, he knew that she was going to. "Come on."

After Zuko had picked up his things, to which the young woman didn't even help with yet again even though she knew he was Fire Lord Zuko, he followed the young woman through the town. They passed the black buildings, went across the large circular clearing, then went down a pathway that was in between white and brown buildings. By now, residents had lit their candles and their lanterns. The pathway was clean and smooth with rows of lanterns on either side of the pathway. There were pathways that stemmed from this one and doors that led to the inside of the houses. It was oddly calming to Zuko. However, the calmness was quickly dispelled as he heard banging, screaming and laughter come from many of the houses. He continued to follow her down the pathway for about ten minutes before they reached a clearing that had grass and bushes of roses as well as river that had a wooden bridge running over it. "Where are we going?" Zuko asked as he went over the bridge and looked at the river that was running under it. There were shoots sprouting out of the water and small turtlekits, these were a small animal that had a shell like a turtle but a tail like a cat, bobbing their heads out of the water.

"I'm taking you to my house."

"Where is this house of yours?" Zuko questioned as he looked back at the coloured houses.

"In the green-light district."

"Excuse me?" He hoped it didn't mean what he thought it meant.

"The green-light district is one of the few places within this town that doesn't have prostitution." Zuko opened his mouth but shut it. He was going to ask her questions about this town later. The rest of the walk was silent as they walked along a pebbled pathway that had small lanterns along the side of it to help whoever was walking. Trees were lining the pathway so that the leaves and branches hovered over the pathway to give natural shading when the sun was out. In the distance, Zuko could see a well-lit area as well as housing and sighed in relief. He could rest. _Even though I've rested for three days_.

As soon as the houses were in view, Zuko immediately began to admire them. The houses were made of wood and were painted in various shades of green. The walls were painted a light green while any additions to the walls, such as columns, were painted in other shades. The roofs of the houses were made of tiles that had a dark green colour to them. The doors were sliding doors that had columns of wood going across with glass panes filling in the areas. The windows also had a similar style to that of door. Many lanterns hung from the roof of the buildings to give the outside some light. You could hear the river in the distance but it was loud enough for it to be calming and not a noise, you could hear crickets and the occasional rustle from animals or wind.

Zuko and the young woman, whose name Zuko still didn't know and was putting all his trust into at the moment, walked passed several more houses before the young woman turned right and stopped in front of the first house. She walked up three steps, stopped in front of the door, took a key out of her left sleeve, put it into the lock, turned it and pushed the door aside. She stepped inside and turned around, looking at Zuko. Zuko raised an eyebrow at her, which made her sigh.

"It's not bugged if that's what you're worried about." She walked to the right so that Zuko no longer saw her. Zuko grunted and went up the stairs. He entered her house and was greeted with a bright white room that had lanterns nearly everywhere. The room had several doors leading to other rooms, a kitchen to the right where the young woman was hovering over some food, to the left there was a table with four chairs, three chairs in the middle with a small table and a large carpet spanning the middle area. Zuko turned his gaze towards the young woman who had her back to him. "Just dump your stuff on the ground and sit down at the table," the young woman called out as she picked up a knife.

"Yes, but…"

"I'm going to get someone to clean your armour and I'll set it aside for you in the room you'll be staying in." She started chopping up a piece of meat, from what Zuko could see. He looked around and remembered that the door was still open. He turned around and placed his items on the floor by the door. He stared at the crown that was sitting on top of the mess of his armour and weapons before he stood up straight. He had no idea what was going to happen. He didn't know how he was going to fix this. He didn't even know if the Avatar knew about what had happened. All of this was running through his mind as he shut the sliding door.

"What's your name?" Zuko asked as he turned around and headed towards the table. Her response was silence as he sat down and looked at her. "I have to know the name of the person who helped me."

"Are you using that term loosely?"

"Well, you did save me from drowning, you are allowing me to stay in your home and you are cooking me food. I think I can say you are helping me." He was still met with silence as she put all of the ingredients into a pot that rested on a stove. She switched it on, lit a match and placed it under the pot. A fire was produced under and started cooking the meal that she was preparing.

"Do you drink tea?" she asked as she walked towards a kettle that was on a fire.

"Yes," Zuko replied. She opened a cupboard and grabbed two cups. She placed them on the counter, grabbed the kettle off of the heat and poured the tea into the cups. She placed the kettle back onto the heat, grabbed the two cups and walked towards Zuko. She placed one in front of him and one in front of the seat closest to him. She pulled the chair out and sat down. "You never answered my question. What is your name?" She took a sip from her cup.

"It's Jasmine flavoured, I don't know if you'll like it or not." Zuko grunted and took a sip from his tea. He was slightly taken aback at how delicious the tea was.

"Your name-" Zuko was cut off as she stood up and walked towards the kitchen, leaving her tea behind. He watched as she grabbed a bowl from a cupboard, placed it on the counter and poured the meal into the bowl before she blew the fire out. She grabbed a spoon from a cup by the sink and brought it and the bowl back to the table. She placed them in front of him and that was when he realised how hungry he was. His stomach growled as his picked up the spoon and started attacking the meal. He didn't care the meal was burning his tongue, or whether or not it tasted good but all he cared about was eating.

"My name is Yuki." He slowed down eating, looked at her and knew she was lying. He had no idea why 'Yuki' was hiding her real name but at least he had a name. He nodded and continued to eat, knowing that there was a reason why she was lying to him.

Yuki watched him eat as she sipped on her tea until she placed her cup down. She put her hand up her left sleeve and grabbed the flier out of it, placing it on the table. Flipping it the right way up, she slid it front of Zuko. "Why?"

Zuko swallowed the spoonful and placed the spoon down. "I don't really know." And that was true. He had no idea why they were doing this. He had a good idea about the fact that they preferred his father's reign over his, that they wanted Ozai instead of him but he didn't really know _why_ they wanted his way more.

"This world is going to go to hell, Scarface, and you know it. You _know_ that everything is getting better and you say 'I don't know'."

"Well, they probably like my father's reign better and stop calling me that."

"So what are you going to do?" Yuki asked, ignoring the latter part of his answer.

"I don't really know."


End file.
